Automatic wireless data transfer is used e.g. for synchronizing mobile phone data with a network based service or with a personal computer of the user of the mobile phone. Such automatic wireless data transfer is often used to backup, update or share calendar entries and messages. The transfer is typically configured to occur with a predetermined period such as once a day or once every 30 minutes.
Some modern mobile phones are provided with near field communication (NFC) circuitry with which such phones can exchange information with proximate devices. This technique is used also in some public transport ticket systems in which an electronic ticket device or tag is merely brought against or next to an NFC ticket validation device. When in proximity, these devices detect each other and perform a process that leaves desired evidence of ticket validation. As NFC typically requires proximity in the range of millimeters or centimeters, the NFC devices are momentarily held together for the ticket validation purpose. Moreover, as the communication connection between NFC devices remains for an unknown and possibly very short period of time, NFC is typically used for transactions in which two NFC devices can be placed next to each other and in which relatively small amounts of information are transferred.